Leslie Becker and James Moye lead the readings of the film noir parody by Joe Major.

Leslie Becker

Joan Crawford in… Flesh & Blood, a film noir parody by playwright Joe Major, will receive a May 25 industry reading in New York City.

Directed by Jeff Whiting (Young Frankenstein, Bullets Over Broadway), Leslie Becker will play Crawford in a cast that also features Klea Blackhurst, James Moye, Peter Gregus, Cassie Silva, and Jeff Brooks.

In the play, which received its first reading in 2010, “Crawford returns to the big screen in Flesh & Blood! a never-before-seen film noir potboiler from 1955 that was so truly awful, the studio canceled its release. Yet Crawford's performance in this 62 year-old bomb is rumored to be ‘so transcendent’ that it's like watching her perform the entire role ‘live!’ Now, thanks to the Yesteryear Film Society's ‘theatrical’ screening of this lost gem, film fans everywhere can finally see Crawford's masterful star turn as Beulah Drake, a New York City house frau who is left by her deadbeat husband to care for their hateful daughter, Trixie. Desperate to give her child a normal upbringing, Beulah unwittingly embezzles money from the Cajun mafia and must ultimately seek refuge within the seedy world of children's television!”

Wagon Wheel Productions in association with Lyle Saunders present the production. David John Madore provides musical enhancements; the stage manager is Jason Brouillard.